1848Mary Gove Nichols:
"When she is owned by a man who can maintain her, though he is loathsome almost
as death to her; when her health is utterly lost in bearing his children, and in
being the legal victim of his lust; when bearing his children, and in being the
legal victim of his lust; when her children are not hers, but his, according to
inexorable law; when she has no power to work, and no means of sustenance but
from this owner; when public opinion will brand her with shame, most probably,
if she leaves her husband, and most certainly if she enter upon ever so true and
loving relations with another man - what is such a woman to do but to live a
false and unholy life? ... A new thought has dawned upon the world - that
of fidelity to one's self."
(Shameless)
